Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Cedric Bixler-Zavala (b. 4 November 1974, Redwood City, San Mateo, California) is an American vocalist, songwriter, and drummer. He is best known as The Mars Volta's lead singer and lyricist (2001–2012; reunited in 2019) and the sole remaining original member of At The Drive-In (1994–2001, 2015–18), where he sang and occasionally played guitar. Bixler has been extensively collaborating with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez since the early 1990s, performing and recording together in several other projects besides ATDI and TMV, such as [url=https://discogs.com/artist/53557]De Facto[/url] (1998–2003), El Grupo Nuevo De Omar Rodriguez Lopez's Cryptomnesia CD/LP in 2009, and a short-lived supergroup Antemasque (2014–15) with Flea and Travis Barker. In December 2005, he released a solo 12" as [url=https://discogs.com/master/1324514]Alavaz Relxib Cirdec[/url] (his name reversed) on [l=Gold Standard Laboratories]. Cedric Bixlez-Zavala co-founded the Anywhere band with Christian Eric Beaulieu of Triclops! and renowned bassist Mike Watt in 2011, also singing and playing guitar with his band Zavalaz (since 2013). He is a technically proficient and versatile tenor vocalist, an expert at controlled falsetto and head voice singing, with the working range G♯2–D6 that extends as low as E2 and as high as C7.
He was born in a family of Mexican origins, the son of Dennis Jose Bixler (b. 1945) and Rosie Maria Zavala; even though Cedric's parents were bilingual, he never learned proper Spanish. The Bixler family soon relocated to El Paso, Texas, where Cedric first met Omar Rodriguez-Lopez in the early 1990s while practicing with Paul Hinojos; they became lifelong friends and permanent collaborators since then. Circa 1993, Cedric established his first band, [url=https://discogs.com/artist/5402713]Foss[/url], with future US politician Beto O'Rourke; they split after two years, releasing several demo tapes and touring the US and Canada twice. In October 1994, Cedric Bixler-Zavala co-founded At The Drive-In with Jim Ward. The early "canonical" lineup solidified by July 1996, after the recording sessions for the band's debut album, Acrobatic Tenement, with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez switching from bass to guitar and drummer Tony Hajjar with bassist Paul Hinojos joining as the permanent members. Other notable bands that Bixler-Zavala founded in the early 1990s include Dregtones with [url=https://discogs.com/artist/591488]Ralph Jasso[/url] on guitar and Jimmy Hernandez on bass, which released the [r=9335229] demo tape on [l=Western Breed Records] in 1994, and The Fall On Deaf Ears, which only recorded several songs before bassist Laura Beard and guitarist [a=Sarah Reiser], both 17, died in a car accident in 1997.
In 1998, Cedric launched his first joint project with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, an experimental dub reggae outfit [url=https://discogs.com/artist/53557]De Facto[/url], which began as a trio with Jim Ward's cousin and intermittent ATDI member, Jeremy Michael Ward, performing improvised jams after the band's local shows. De Facto soon gained traction, releasing several EPs and two full-length albums. When At The Drive-In disbanded in 2001, it was De Facto that first signed with [l=Gold Standard Laboratories], releasing Megaton Shotblast (GSL45) before The Mars Volta presented the group's debut Tremulant EP (GSL54).